Comparison

MacDive vs Scuba Log

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

MacDive

Log and manage your scuba dives with detailed profiles and images. Track dive sites automatically via GPS and sync data across devices. Supports direct downloads from compatible dive computers and helps manage your gear.

Highlights
  • Detailed dive log profiles
  • GPS dive site tracking
  • Smart Bluetooth device downloads
  • Gear management and service reminders
  • Critter cataloging
  • iCloud/Dropbox data sync
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

View and log your dives on the go. Detailed profiles, images, Smart Bluetooth downloads and more. We've brought the best features of MacDive for macOS to your pocket. MacDive for iPhone can be used as a fully featured standalone dive log, and it also works great in conjunction with MacDive for macOS. • Browse and manage your dive logs on the go. • Use iCloud or Dropbox to keep your data in sync between your iPhone and MacDive for macOS. • Automatic dive site tracking via GPS. Put your iPhone in your dry bag and worry about the details when you're back on land! • Native downloads from supported Smart Bluetooth devices. • Catalogue and identify the critters you've seen, or the ones you want to find. • Manage your gear and let MacDive remind you when a service is due. MacDive supports downloading dives directly from various Smart Bluetooth devices, like the Shearwater Perdix AI and Teric, Suunto D5 and EON Steel, Scubapro G2, Mares Genius and Bluelink, Heinrichs Weikamp OSTC and the Dive Nav DC Buddy (sold separately). See our website for a full list of devices. Please note that continued use of Location Tracking/GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

About

Scuba Log

Features
Read full description

Your dive logbook, digital and yours forever. Dive Log is a private scuba logbook for your phone. Log a dive in about a minute, watch your depth and time records build, and export the whole logbook whenever a dive shop asks to see it. Your logbook stays on your device — no account, no cloud, no agency lock-in. LOG A DIVE IN A MINUTE Site, max depth, duration — that is all a dive needs. Everything else is there when you want it: entry time, average depth, water temperature, visibility, breathing gas and nitrox mix, cylinder pressure in and out, weight carried, exposure suit, buddy and notes. Metric or imperial, switched whenever you like. Your dives are always stored the same way, so changing units never changes a single logged value. BRING YOUR PAPER LOGBOOK ACROSS Tell Dive Log how many dives you have already done and your numbering picks up where the paper left off — a diver with 180 dives starts at 181, not 1. Add your recent dives and your certification the first time you open the app, and years of paper become searchable, backed up, and impossible to leave in a hotel room. YOUR RECORDS, CLIMBING Deepest dive. Longest dive. Total bottom time. Dives per year, most-dived sites, gas breakdown, and the buddies you dive with most. EXPORT FOR ANY DIVE SHOP Boats and dive centres ask to see a logbook before an advanced course or a deeper dive. Export as a PDF laid out like a classic paper logbook page, or as CSV for a spreadsheet. Sign your dives on screen with a finger, exactly the way you would sign a paper page. EVERY TRIP, ORGANIZED Group a week of diving into one trip and see it whole — every dive, every site, the totals for the trip. GEAR AND CERTIFICATIONS Track your regulator, BCD, computer, suit, fins, mask and cylinders. Set your own service interval and Dive Log reminds you when it comes around — you choose the interval, because a service schedule is your manufacturer's and your service centre's call, never ours. Keep your certifications in the same place: level, agency and card number, typed exactly as your card reads. WORKS ON A BOAT Everything works with no signal at all. Nothing to sign into, nothing to sync — as quick on a liveaboard as it is at home. No ads, ever. WHAT IT IS NOT A personal record — not a dive computer, not a dive planner, and not a substitute for training or dive tables. Dive Log records the dives you have already made. It does not compute decompression status, no-stop times, gas consumption or exposure limits, and it never will. Read your own instruments, follow your training, and dive within the limits you were taught. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no email, no sign-up, no ads, nothing uploaded. Your dive journal, your certifications and your gear stay on your phone, and a backup is text you keep yourself. Dive Log is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by any diving training or certification agency, and it does not verify certifications. BUILT TO OUTLAST YOUR PHONE A logbook is a permanent record, so nothing in it is trapped. Back up your whole dive log as plain text you keep yourself, and restore it on a new device by pasting it straight back. Export a PDF or CSV copy any time you want one that does not depend on this app at all. Free to download, and it works the moment you open it. Take your scuba logbook with you. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ — Privacy Policy: https://kanac.github.io/syanac-legal/

Screenshots

MacDive4 screens
Scuba Log4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Scuba Log at Free against MacDive's $9.99. MacDive's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and chart position (#171 vs unranked). On ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Scuba Log is free to download; MacDive costs $9.99 up front. Scuba Log sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. MacDive asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
MacDive versus Scuba Log: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMacDiveScuba Log
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (59 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews80.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings59 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
Best chart rank#171 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS9.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size51 MB40 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMint Software LtdAnthony Chui

In-app purchases

None

MacDive

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Scuba Log

Subscriptions2
  • Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Pro Yearly$11.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro Lifetime$19.99

Questions

Is MacDive free?
MacDive costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Scuba Log free?
Scuba Log is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do MacDive or Scuba Log have ads?
Neither MacDive nor Scuba Log shows ads.

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